Sara Adler

Sara Adler (née Levitskaya, some sources give Levitsky or Levitzky, changed to Lewis; 26 May 1858 – 28 April 1953) was a Russian actress in Yiddish theater who made her career mainly in the United States. She was known as the "mother" or "duchess" of Yiddish theater. She was the third wife of Jacob Adler and the mother of prominent actors Luther and Stella Adler, and lesser-known actors Jay, Julia, Frances, and Florence Adler. The most famous of her 300 or so leading roles included the redeemed prostitute Katusha Maslova in Jacob Gordin's play based on Tolstoy's Resurrection and Batsheva in Gordin's The Homeless. She introduced "realism" in acting before it became an American movement. Early life Sara Levitzky was born to merchant parents, Ellye and Pessye Levitzky, in Odessa, Russian Empire (currently in Ukraine). Her father was a well-to-do merchant. Levitzky attended a Russian school, where she first performed on the stage at eight years old as Emilia in The Robbers. She trained in voice at the Odesa Conservatory before transitioning to a career in Yiddish theater. During her teens, she performed in local amateur productions. She grew up speaking Russian, only learning Yiddish through her participation in Yiddish theater. Early career in Europe When Adler joined a Yiddish troupe at seventeen, she was hired to sing Russian songs after the play as a part of the divertissement due to her lack of fluency in Yiddish.